{"id":3685,"date":"2016-05-22T20:34:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T19:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danielebesana.com\/blog\/?p=3685"},"modified":"2016-05-22T20:34:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-22T19:34:00","slug":"online-income-report-april-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danielebesana.com\/blog\/online-income-report\/online-income-report-april-2016","title":{"rendered":"Online Income Report – April 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since I arrived back to Amsterdam, at the beginning of May, I focused on\u00a0work<\/strong> and\u00a0run<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Being back to a more regular routine helps with the productivity, and to balance the time spent at the desk I started a personal challenge: run every day for 30 days<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I’ll write about it once the challenge is over, for now let’s focus on the online income report.<\/p>\n

Ah… the online income reports! I have a love\/hate relationship with them. I did April’s financial calculation in the first days of May, but I let two weeks pass by before actually taking the\u00a0time to sit down (actually, laid down on the couch) and write this post.<\/p>\n

Last month I asked for feedback about the format, only to get very different opinions. Hanny said she finds the updates more interesting than the numbers, while Cloudio said exactly the opposite: to report the numbers and forget about the rest.<\/p>\n

Thank you very much! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

So I’ll keep the status quo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What’s Going On<\/h2>\n

Where I’ve been<\/h3>\n

Let’s start with the usual quick travel update.
\nApril started in Saigon, Vietnam<\/strong>. Meeting some friends from the DC community and enjoying good Vietnamese coffee.
\nThen I visited for my first time Singapore<\/strong>, where a friend recently moved to live with his girlfriend.
\nFrom there back to Indonesia for a week in Jakarta (I really struggle to like that place) and two weeks in my dear Bali.
\nAnd btw, I published the article one month in Ubud<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Firing a customer<\/h3>\n

This has been a hard decision, but a decision that every entrepreneur sooner or later has to face.<\/p>\n

The services I provide with\u00a0WP-OK<\/strong>\u00a0are quite defined: it’s a support & maintenance service for WordPress websites, and being a\u00a0productized service<\/strong> it’s very specific on what’s included – and what’s not included.<\/p>\n

This is how I can keep it affordable and manageable.<\/p>\n

This specific customer wasn’t playing by the rules and I don’t blame him. He was looking for a different type of service, something closer to the traditional consultancy.<\/p>\n

I realized I could not make him happy within my rules, and that making exceptions for him would have made\u00a0me<\/strong> not happy either… so after a sleepless night (well OK, just few hours) I decided to terminate the collaboration, deliver the work done up to that moment and return the money.<\/p>\n

The moment I sent that email I was soooo relieved. All the thoughts disappeared, but one: I was afraid of his reaction.<\/p>\n

He replied that the service wasn’t working for him either, and we parted away in a professional and respectful way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Building a Team: from ‘I’ to ‘WE’.<\/h3>\n

I finally feel ready to step up the game and build a network of collaborators. It’s clear that I’ve to be the boss and work on<\/strong> the business and not in<\/strong> the business: something I heard 82453231231 times but never applied.<\/p>\n

Or maybe I wasn’t in a position where I was confident in delegating and managing people.<\/p>\n

Last year I was looking for a business partner, and I got one for RouterFreak. That has been a bliss and helped me a lot. It changed how I work\u00a0because I’ve someone to confront ideas with and share tasks.<\/p>\n

Now and for the next months (this is also a goal, actually) I’m focusing on building a team that can replace me in the operational part of the business.<\/p>\n

In April, I started two collaborations.<\/p>\n

One is with Jonathan<\/strong>, a great WordPress developer and nomadic soul that is helping with WP-OK support requests. This pushed me to write down SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and record some videos so he could get started and be independent as fast as possible. Quite happy with that and how we’re working together!<\/p>\n

The second of is with…. my cousin. Yep, she was in-between-jobs so I asked her help reaching out potential advertisers for RouterFreak. She dedicated just few hours on this (and eventually stopped as she got a proper full-time job) but it worked very well because she got in contact with the VP of a startup that we<\/strong> turned into a great customer.<\/p>\n

I’m finally entitled to say ‘we’ when I talk to someone without feeling like I’m pretending.
\nWe do this, we work this way, we’ll take care of your site… way to go!<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

The Numbers<\/h2>\n

Income Breakdown<\/h3>\n

Let’s get down with the numbers!<\/p>\n